AsianScientist (May 29, 2019) – A team of scientists in China has found a way to purify water contaminated with pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Their findings are published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Medications excreted in the urine or dumped into the toilet can end up in the water supply. Similarly, lotions or cosmetics that wash off the body go down the sink or shower drain. These substances are being detected in surface water, groundwater and even the tissues of fish and vegetables. Some PPCPs are known to negatively affect human health or the environment. Unfortunately, conventional wastewater treatment cannot completely remove such PPCPs.
In this study, researchers led by Professor Zhu Guangshan at Northeast Normal University, China, sought to incorporate porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs) with fiber-based membranes to trap PPCPs in water. PAFs are known to be useful in removing pollutants from water, but they are usually in powder form, do not dissolve in most solvents and are difficult to handle and recycle.
To overcome these issues, the team first electrospun a polymer called polyacrylonitrile into a fibrous membrane, which they coated with polyaniline to allow PAFs to be attached to the membrane’s surface. The researchers then added biphenyl molecules and reacted them to grow PAF on the polyaniline-coated fibers.
The modified membrane adsorbed three model PPCPs—ibuprofen, chloroxylenol and diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET)—with capacities higher than most other reported adsorbents. In addition, the membrane was recyclable; the team removed the adsorbed PPCPs with ethanol and reused the membrane for ten adsorption-desorption cycles, with only a slight decrease in capacity.
The article can be found at: Zhao et al. (2019) Porous Aromatic Framework Modified Electrospun Fiber Membrane as a Highly Efficient and Reusable Adsorbent for Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products Removal.
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Source: American Chemical Society; Photo: Pexels.
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